Kalina, M., Rogan, M., (2017) Estimating the current and future skills demand of government's national growth and development policies.

The skills demand implications of South Africa’s economic-development policies are often overlooked in favour of their impacts on poverty, inequality, and unemployment. In response, this HSRC paper assesses government’s economic development policies as drivers of demand for skills. Key national, provincial and metropolitan municipality development strategies have been examined in order to generate a broad estimate of their skills demand implications. Its findings suggest that few economic development plans analyse the implications of their interventions on the existing or forecasted skills base within the labour market. This has resulted in a disconnect between job-creation goals, available skills, and government efforts to address skills shortages, like those outlined in the White Paper for Post-School Education and Training and the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS). These findings contribute to a broad consensus that South Africa lacks a credible and replicable skills planning mechanism at national, regional and local levels, which is a significant barrier in addressing the skills mismatch that exists in the labour market.